Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to St. Anthony Parish in Hawthorne on June 24 to serve as the main celebrant and homilist of the 10 a.m. Mass to mark the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the patron of the Diocese of Paterson.

Bishop Serratelli served as the main celebrant and homilist of the 10:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary of Assumption Church in Passaic on June 23. During the Mass he administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 49 young people from St. Mary Parish, St. Nicholas Parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish and Our Lady of Fatima Parish, all in Passaic.

The Beacon won four awards in the annual Catholic Press Asso­ciation’s Best Catholic Newspaper competition for work published in 2017. The awards were presented at the 2018 Catholic Media Conference in Green Bay, Wisc., June 13-15.

A new era begins June 29 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish (OLMC) in Passaic when it welcomes its first diocesan priest as administrator of the city parish. For the first time in 96 years, Capuchin Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Sacred Stigmata of St. Francis will no longer have a pastoral presence at OLMC after serving the faith community since the parish began in 1922. The faithful of this multicultural parish expressed sadness about the departure of their beloved Capuchins — whom they describe as “warm,” “welcoming” and “engaging” — but also hope at the dawn of a new beginning as the province hands the pastoral care of OLMC to the Paterson Diocese.

A soft breeze blew into the center of Eastside Park in Paterson on a recent summer day and through three new flowering cherry trees at the rear and sides of an equally new dark-green aluminum bench. Three years ago, the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God left their ministries in Paterson, but today, the bench and trees, dedicated on June 19, have symbolically re-established their presence in the city that they love. They also ensure that the sisters’ 92-year legacy of ministering to its poor and forgotten people will always be remembered.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official overseas relief and development agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2018. For three-quarters of a century, CRS has been easing suffering and providing assistance to people in need in more than 100 countries. CRS’ roots go back to 1943, after an outpouring of concern from Catholics in the United States led to the creation of War Relief Services by the U.S. bishops to help thousands of World War II survivors and refugees.

Bishop Serratelli served as main celebrant of the annual Serra Club Mass to honor seminarians, newly ordained priests and retiring priests, held at St. Gerard Majella Church in Paterson on June 12. The 6:30 p.m. liturgy was followed by a dinner at the Brownstone, also in Paterson.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on June 17 to St. Christopher Parish here were he served as main celebrant and homilist of the 10:45 a.m. Mass for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Concelebrating the liturgy were Father Joseph Buffardi, St. Christopher’s pastor; Father Michal Falgowski, parochial vicar; and Father Kevin Corcoran, diocesan vice chancellor and the Bishop’s priest-secretary.

The faith community of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Passaic welcomed Bishop Serratelli who served as main celebrant and homilist at the 5:30 p.m. Mass for the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time on Saturday, June 16. During the liturgy, he conferred the Sacrament of Confirmation on 31 people — 30 from St. Anthony’s and one from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Paterson.

On June 10, Bishop Serratelli helped Resurrection Parish in Randolph commemorate 40 years as a “truly Second Vatican Council” faith community in central Morris County — and as the first parish that now-Bishop Emeritus Rodimer established in his early days as Bishop of Paterson in 1978. That day in the church, Bishop Serratelli served as the main celebrant and homilist of the 11:30 a.m. Mass, which concluded Resurrection’s anniversary celebrations.

It took no time for Robert to settle in to his new bedroom in the new Walsh House group home in Succasunna for physically and mentally disabled adults. A resident since late February, he delights in showing off the treasured contents of his room, including a TV, a tall stack of compact discs next to it and a few pieces of N.Y. Yankees memorabilia that are displayed above his bed. “I’m so happy with my room,” Robert declared.

The U.S. Catholic Church’s observance of Religious Freedom Week begins tomorrow on June 22, the feast of two English martyrs who fought religious persecution — St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More — and ends June 29, the feast of two apostles martyred in Rome — Ss. Peter and Paul.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit to the Diocesan Shrine of St. Pope John Paul II/Holy Rosary Parish in Passaic on Saturday, June 9 to serve as the main celebrant and homilist of the 5 p.m. Mass for the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time. During the liturgy, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 62 young people of the parish.

On June 5, Bishop Serratelli gave thanks to God for his generous gift of priests to serve the Diocese and for the spiritual gifts that the Lord has given to them to help them perform their ministries during the annual Jubilee Mass for Priests, held this year at St. Peter the Apostle Church in Parsippany. The Mass honored 22 diocesan and religious order priests, who are serving or have served in the Church of Paterson and who are marking the 65-, 60-, 50-, 40-, and 25-year anniversaries of their ordination.

Last Sunday afternoon, they had so many things to see but a short amount of time in which to see them. A large group of teenagers from around the Diocese made the most of the 10 minutes they were allotted at the end of a tour of the newly renovated Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson on June 10 to take in as much of the rich architectural, historical and liturgical details of the Diocese’s majestic “mother church” as possible.

This Sunday, Father’s Day, will once again be a good day for many and a tough day for some. It’s a good day because it gives all fathers the opportunity to count their blessings, thanking God for the gift of their children, and the awesome honor it is to be their Dad. But it’s also a tough day for those of us who have had our Dad called home to the Lord.

Bishop Serratelli made a pastoral visit on Sunday, June 3 to the faith community of St. Brendan/St. George in Clifton, where he served as the main celebrant and homilist of the 11 a.m. Mass for the Feast of Corpus Christi. The liturgy was held in St. Brendan Church.

Pat W. wears a tattoo on his neck that bears the name of “Lori” — a memorial to his oldest daughter, who died of a heroin overdose in February. Sober for a year, the 59-year-old resident of the new Winter Wheat Sober Living Community in Paterson has had plenty of time to think about Lori and about the many losses in his life because of his decades of alcoholism and drug addiction. They include two failed marriages, difficulty in holding a steady job, difficult relationships with many of his nine children and almost 30 years of stays in and out of prison.

There was ceremony and solemn prayer, but also a spirited question-and-answer session as Bishop Serratelli held his annual catechesis with recent First Communicants from throughout the Paterson Diocese. More than 150 First Communicants and their families filled the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson for the celebration on June 3, the Feast of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ).